


Keeping Them In

by Frangipanidownunder



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-10-26 02:44:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17737523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Frangipanidownunder/pseuds/Frangipanidownunder
Summary: Post Drive fic. What was Mulder thinking as he stared out to sea?





	Keeping Them In

He thinks about the way the ocean is always there. The immensity of it. Surrounding them. Keeping them in. Today, is it today or is yesterday, time has slipped somehow? Today, it’s a deep swirling blue verging on grey. It’s gently rippling but with a threatening undertone. Like it’s on the verge, waiting. Simmering.

Crump is dead. The road ran out.

Scully and he lived by the sea in their younger years. It must shape a person, he thinks. The physicality of it, not just the salt-whipped winds it creates or the constant sounds of it, a white noise, if you like. But the sheer scale of it compared to humanity. He has no barometer to measure against though. He was never landlocked. Or maybe that kind of life gives you a better perspective. Keeps you feeling small. So you understand your place in the world.

Crump died with hope on his lips. Mulder has never felt smaller.

 

She drives to the airport. He wants to laugh at the irony. She is only doing what she knows best, he has to remind himself. She is a doctor. She is caring for her patient. And it isn’t until they’re flying and he feels the aching pull in his ears that he thinks about the case from her perspective.

“Are you okay, Scully?” he asks as she closes the in-flight magazine.

“I’m fine, Mulder.” Stock response. But the fatigue is pulling at her cheeks and her eyes are dull.

“Crump loved his wife so much, he was so angry. I…I thought he wouldn’t want to live. But when I…when I told him about your plan, he was so animated, so hopeful…”

“Mulder,” she starts, squaring herself to him. “Please don’t think this is your fault.”

He chuffs a laugh and shakes his head. “No, no…it’s not that I think it’s my fault, it’s…you had a plan and it didn’t…you lost him too.”

She looks away quickly. Nods. “Sometimes the road just isn’t long enough.”

The plane banks and he closes his eyes to imagine the ocean surrounding them. Deep and unfathomable. Always there, the ebb and the flow. The push and the pull. Keeping them in.


End file.
